Warm-up –Answer these Essential Questions
1. What was the primary theme of the
Romanticism time period?
2. Name a genre from the time period.
3. What did Romantic writers value over
reason and fact?
4. Name something that was going on in
America during the Romanticism time
period.
5. Name an author from the Romanticism
time period.
Time Periods of Literature
Lesson 39
Romanticism 1800-1860
Erie Canal
finished in 1825
in New York
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Georgia Performance Standard
• ELAALRL3: The student deepens
understanding of literary works by
relating them to their contemporary
context or historical background, as well
as to works from other time periods.
a. The student relates a literary work to
the characteristics of the literary time
period or historical setting;
– i. Romanticism
Introduction
• Before 1800, American writers were not
widely read – not even in America – but
that situation soon began to change. The
writers of this period would define the
American voice – personal, idiosyncratic
(peculiar individual characteristics), and
bold.
• The primary theme was the quest of the
individual to define him- or herself.
Romanticism was an artistic
movement that dominated
Europe & America during the
19th century. Romantics do
not necessarily write about
love.
Genre of the Romantic Period
Effect/Aspects of Romanticism
• valued imagination over reason and
intuition over fact
• journeyed away from corruption of
civilization and limits of rational
thought toward the integrity (honesty)
of nature and freedom of the
imagination
Effect/Aspects of Romanticism cont…
• helped instill proper gender
behavior for men and women
• allowed people to re-imagine the
American past
Historical Context of Romanticism
• expansion of magazines, newspapers,
and book publishing
• slavery debates
• Industrial revolution brought ideas
that the “old ways” of doing things
were now irrelevant.
• The young nation seemed to be able
to handle anything.
Historical Context of Romanticism
• America seemed to be on the world
stage to stay
• America was expanding westward
and growing.
• Transportation was steadily changing
and improving with canals, railroads,
and turnpikes.
• Factories sprang up in the
Northeast; steel plow, reaper, and
telegraph were invented.
Example… Washington Irving
was the first American to
be widely read overseas and
made his mark with History
of New York in 1809.
Some Works of Irving
• “Rip Van Winkle”
(a story of a man who
falls to sleep for many
years and wakes up to a
much different world)
• “The Legend of Sleepy
Hollow”
• Both of these sparked an
interest in Irving’s
beloved Hudson River
Valley.
• History of New York
(a rollicking narrative that
changed facts about New
York’s past whenever
Irving wanted to do so)
Example… William Cullen
Bryant reveled in nature. He
is best known for his lyric
poems rejoicing in the healing
powers of nature. He used his
position as an influential
journalist to defend human
rights and personal freedoms.
He was an outspoken advocate
of women’s rights and a
passionate foe of slavery.
Bryant was the first American
poet to win worldwide critical
acclaim, and his works helped
establish the Romantic
Movement in America.
Examples… Poems of Emily Dickinson
I’m Nobody
I'm nobody! Who are you?
Are you nobody, too?
Then there's a pair of us -don't tell!
They'd advertise -- you
know!
How dreary to be somebody!
How public like a frog
To tell one's name the
livelong day
To an admiring bog!
Examples… Oliver Wendell Holmes
• Wrote “Old
Ironsides” to
protest the
destruction of the
battleship
Constitution
(nicknamed “Old
Ironsides”)
• The poem saved the
ship and earned him
national recognition
as a poet.
Examples… James Fenimore Cooper’s
four Leatherstocking Tales feature the
exploits of Natty Bumppo in the frontier
forests of upstate New York. A man of
absolute moral integrity, Natty Bumppo
preferred nature over civilization,
establishing the pattern for countless
American heroes to come.
Example – Edgar Allen Poe – Click black area to start video (6:35).
Example… Edgar
Allen Poe
He wrote haunting
poems and
suspenseful stories
with grotesque,
weird characters.
Romantic writing
often accented
the fantastic
aspects of human
experience.
Edgar Allen Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart – Click black area to start video (6:50).
In Conclusion…
• Ralph Waldo Emerson in 1837 called
for America writers to become
independent from European writers and
begin to interpret their own culture in
new ways. A burst of literary activity
took place in and around Boston
between 1840 and 1855 producing an
array of great writers and enduring
literature.
Freneau and His House
There was an overlapping of
Romanticism with
Transcendentalism (which you
have already studied).
Georgia Performance Standard
• ELAALRL3: The student deepens
understanding of literary works by
relating them to their contemporary
context or historical background, as well
as to works from other time periods.
a. The student relates a literary work to
the characteristics of the literary time
period or historical setting;
– i. Romanticism
Warm-up –Answer these Essential Questions
1. What was the primary theme of the
Romanticism time period?
2. Name a genre from the time period.
3. What did Romantic writers value over
reason and fact?
4. Name something that was going on in
America during the Romanticism time
period.
5. Name an author from the Romanticism
time period.
1. What was the primary theme of
the Romanticism time period?
• the quest of the individual to
define him- or herself
2. Name a genre from the time
period.
• character sketches
• slave narratives
• poetry
• short stories
3. What did Romantic writers value
over reason and fact?
• imagination & intuition
4. Name something that was going
on in America during the
Romanticism time period.
• Expansion of newspapers, magazines,
and book publishing
• Slavery debates
• Industrial Revolution, inventions,
building of factories in America
• Westward expansion
• Improvement of transportation and
communication
5. Name an author from the
Romanticism time period.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Irving
Bryant
Dickinson
Cooper
Poe
Emerson
etc/